Analysis of the CDR3 length of TCR αβ T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B

To clarify the characteristics of TCR αβ T cells in the peripheral blood of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), we investigated the patterns of Complementarity Determining Region3 (CDR3) length distribution for all 24 TCR BV gene families and 32 TCR AV gene family in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of two patients with CHB and two healthy controls by immunoscope spectratyping technique. We found that the profiles of CDR3 length distribution for all TCR AV and TCR BV family showed Gaussian distribution (the polyclonal TCR αβ T cells) in healthy controls, however, the restricted usage of TCR BV and TCR AV family (the oligoclonal TCR αβ T cells) has been monitored in two CHB patients, furthermore, the oligoclonal TCR αβ T cells showed the different CDR3 sequences and length, it might be correlated to the different epitope of hepatitis B virus (HBV) or the different HLA type of the patients. Detailed analysis of the CDR3 length of TCR αβ T cells might be interesting to light on the further study of the individualized immunotherapy of CHB and the further research of the new T lymphocyte epitope vaccine of HBV.